100-yr-old building collapses in Chandni Chowk area

A five-storey building collapsed around midnight onSaturday in the Chandni Chowk area of central Delhi. A short circuit reportedly followed the building collapse. Luckily, nobody was injured in the incident.

The BM Shah building was located near Gauri Shankar temple and opposite Moti Cinema in Chandni Chowk. The dilapidated building is said to be around 100 years old. It had around 30 commercial offices, shops and godowns.

According to the residents of the area, the sides of the building had started tilting on Saturday and they had complained about it to the municipal corporation, but no official visited the area. People, however, vacated the building soon after cracks were noticed on Saturday.

According to Sanjay Tomar, assistant divisional officer from Delhi fire service, the fire was doused within a few minutes after his team reached the spot.

‘We received the call at around 12.50 am that a building has collapsed which triggered a small fire, but our team doused it,’ the official added.

The businessmen whose establishments were in the collapsed building complained that the building collapsed due to unauthorised construction that was taking place on the top floors of the building. One of the businessmen who did not want to be named said, ‘We have lost everything that we had earned. No action was taken against the illegal construction. It’s all because of corruption that a common man has to suffer.’